Our Natural Life: The Introduction

November 20, 2014

This post has been a long time coming. I’ve often mentioned how we eat and bits about our health choices on social media and I always get questions. I’ve realized it was finally time to write this post since so many of you have shown an interest. For awhile now, we’ve been on a journey toward living a more natural life. I’ve debated how much to share about this because I never want those who make different decisions to feel judged. But my vision for this blog is to share all of the ins and outs of how we’re LIVING WITH STYLE AND PURPOSE transparently.

STYLE is a piece of that as y’all see with my home decor and entertaining posts, but LIVING WITH PURPOSE is also part of it. This journey is something that has completely changed our lives. It’s like sharing our faith. When something alters your daily life, who you are to the core, you can’t not share it. It naturally flows out of who you are, both in your actions and conversation. So much of our story was influenced by blogs like this that I found while desperately seeking answers. If I can help one person like I was helped, it’s so worth it.

First of all, what does that mean? We try to lead a natural life?

To us, this means that we eat, use products, and live as naturally as possible. We don’t do it perfectly AT ALL. I still sneak my Chick Fil’A nuggets on occasion. Rosie loves them. But, we’ve discovered through a long journey with a lot of learning along the way that this is how we feel best and how we feel like our family lives to the fullest.

I’ve found that with a few key changes, we’ve been able to better almost everything that we’ve struggled with:

Here’s some more details about what these three steps have looked like for us:

The journey started with food. I still remember the day when I had no clue what organic meant. I thought I was eating and living healthy then, but would scoff at the “organic-only” people. Even once I learned what it meant, it took me awhile to understand that it was better. Over time, I really began to understand how what we put in our bodies affects us. If I can choose to eat just a strawberry rather than something resembling a strawberry that’s been altered by pesticides and chemicals, it’s an easy choice.

About a year ago, I was having stomach and serious skin issues. I’ll discuss how natural methods cured those in a dedicated post because it is a LONG, but important story to tell. I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked until I started looking into natural methods. Over time, I found that dairy and gluten were the root of my problems. I did a month-long experiment to cut them out and ALL of my issues were gone. Now, that isn’t to say that everyone should cut those out to be healthy. But that was the answer for me and how my system processes things. I’ve found over time that gluten is more negotiable for me, though I feel so much better when I don’t have it. But dairy is a non-negotiable.

During this journey above, I learned for the first time why it was important to use natural body products, not just food. In trying to cure my skin, I looked into the chemicals I was putting on my body and found that our skin is super absorbent. What we put on our skin gets into our blood stream and fast. So, when I’m eating whole foods, but slathering myself in chemicals, I am really defeating the purpose.

The more I got into living this natural life, the more complicated it seemed to get.

No Gluten. No Dairy. No GMO. Only organic. Well what the heck can I eat?!

Body products with ONLY natural, whole ingredients. Do you know how hard those can be to find?! And some of them just don’t work! After all kinds of digging and getting really overwhelmed with all of the “RULES” I was encountering about natural living, I discovered it’s incredibly simple and there was really only one rule I needed to follow.

Is it naturally found here on earth?

Once I realized how tied healthy living is to my faith, it became incredibly simple.

I say I believe it when the Bible says that God will meet our every need, but do I really? If that’s true, then God put what we needed for a healthy life here for us. He gave us all of the whole, natural foods that we needed. He didn’t create refined sugar and processed foods. We did.

It’s crazy how true that is!

So many diseases, our food choices play a part in creating: diabetes, heart disease, the list goes on and on.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I see no need for modern medicine. The perfect world God created didn’t have cancer and illness in it and thank goodness, he gave many people the intelligence to find cures and treatments. We live in a broken world and because of that, I believe there is absolutely a time and a place for traditional medicine. However, I do think we rely too heavily on it. I’ve seen firsthand, and know many people, who’ve healed themselves from many things by changing what they eat or by using homeopathic means.

In trying to improve my skin about a year ago, I came across essential oils. I had heard of them, but had no clue what they did or what their purpose was. To be honest, even with the way I was choosing to eat, I thought they were just too hippie for me. I mean, you rub some oil on and your headache goes away? Yeah, okay. Well, then I got pregnant. And had ailments I couldn’t take traditional medicine for. I started looking again into essential oils and what I found there has seriously changed the way that we live.

After I discovered Young Living, so much about our life started to change. You can read more about that journey and how it’s affected us here.

At first, I was shocked to see how well they worked! I mean, something natural is really taking away my heartburn, nausea, and headaches? I can use certain oils to clear up my stuffy nose? This is a miracle!

We live in a broken world. Living a natural life does not mean I will be exempt from any health struggles or illnesses. But I do believe I can make the best choices I can for our family. Do what’s within your power and then give God control.

It reminds me of that analogy I always heard growing up. When you have a big test coming up, is it God-honoring to not study and then pray on the morning of the test for God to help you do well? Definitely not.

He calls us to do our part. Prepare to the best of our ability and then give it over to Him.

That’s how I see this health journey for us. We’re doing the little bit we can (although never perfectly, but we’re making strides that are changing our every day) and then we’re trusting that His plan for us is for our good. It may include sickness and will most definitely include struggles, but I know I can trust Him for our eternal good.

As I said above, what’s really made the difference for us is Young Living. The oils, vitamins, cleaning products, body care products, the list goes on and on…but all of them have helped us to remove chemicals and toxins from our bodies and homes and live as we feel God intended. To learn more, click below.

This is such a beautifully written post and so true. We began growing herbs and vegetables and continue to expand the amounts and variety each year. We are working towards leaving the busy suburbs we live in and buy land where we can be as self sustainable as possible. He has been calling me to live more simply for the past few years and my life has been only enriched as I follow His lead.

speaking of God…i feel like, sometimes, your posts are so timely for me. we have been talking about oils and a healthier lifestyle and all kinds of stuff over the last few months as we’ve explored our *other* health journey, which you know about. i am SO very interested in this and in the issues you had that led you to cut gluten and dairy. i am a chronic stomach-issue-sufferer. like, life-long but no actual diagnosis. ANY advice/tips/ideas you might have from your experience (while likely different) would be so helpful if you don’t mind! so excited to see this working so well for you! God is so so good!

Jessica, I am so glad to hear that! I’m going to share more about my new diet, but I’ve been doing it for a year now and like you, had some not fun stomach issues. It took care of it, though it is a hard commitment to make!

Came upon your website by accident or was it? I can relate to your comments so much. Would love to talk with you more in depth if possible. If not, would you share any information on esstential oils since I have many skin issues. Barb

I Would love the post about your health journey. I have had a skin rash for sometime now that I believe is DH but have yet to cut out gluten. I’d love to hear how quickly you saw results particularly with your skin.

Brittany,
I didn’t have skin issues, but I did have stomach issues and saw results from cutting gluten in about a week. My daughter suffers from eczema and I cut dairy for her and within 1 week, her skin had totally cleared. When I put her back on dairy, the rash came back.
Good luck with your rash!
Lori

I actually enjoy posts the most where a blogger reveals something she considers personal with her readers. It makes more of a connection when our relationship is “virtual” through a blog. And I agree with your approach to natural body products and have been moving in that direction myself. I read about emu oil as a natural source for treating a wide variety of skin and body issues on a home decor blog last year, and found it so interesting I researched it am now selling on Amazon. I’d be happy to send you some samples if you’d like, as they only contain emu oil plus natural and organic botanicals, plus essential oils. You can get more info here too: amazon.com/shops/emubliss

Hi! My family & I have been seriously trying to shift our lives in this direction. We are currently using oils to replace many of the things you mentioned, as well as other natural items to replace cleaning & at home products… but shifting our diet has been the most difficult part! With our picky three year old eater and our large extended family, it is proving to be a real battle. I know you are not yet to the picky eater stage or parenthood but was wondering if you had any advise when getting together with family. Do you just have a cheat day and eat whatever you want? Especially during the holiday season it is tough to go to family parties and expect to have foods there that follow the guidelines. I think it’s harder for our son because he doesn’t understand why he can sometimes eat certain foods (for example, every time he goes to grandma’s house!) and other times not.

Thanks so much for posting & for sharing the wholesale oils… it has been added to my Christmas list this year and will definitely save us money! I so enjoy your site! 🙂

Hi Ashley!!! Such good and hard questions here! Even though we don’t have the picky baby yet, this too has been really, really difficult! I don’t think there is a blanket fix for everyone. For us, we don’t do a cheat day when with family etc., (especially on dairy) because our reactions are so severe now that being that sick is so not worth it! I can tell you that being pregnant, I’ve cheated on gluten some when I just really wanted something. I always regret it, but my reactions aren’t nearly as severe with it. I will say, though, if this was just a health choice, and the things we cut out didn’t make us very sick, I would totally cheat at holidays and such and eat mac ‘n cheese! So, I think you have to evaluate that. There is NOTHING wrong with cheating and enjoying things on special occasions if you don’t have adverse reactions to it and your reasons for cutting things out are just health oriented. Things on rare occasion are fine, I think! That is really tough about your son, though 🙁 How do you explain moderation because things are unhealthy to a 3-year-old? I’m afraid, I don’t have much expertise in that area. Thankfully, our families have been really supportive. My mom makes us our own version of some of the holiday foods even though we tell her not to! We don’t expect that by any means, but she does it anyway because she knows that we really can’t have dairy. I don’t know if that’s helpful, but I hope so 🙂 If it doesn’t make you sick, cheat and enjoy for the holidays. I totally would, haha!

It totally helps and makes me not feel so guilty! I’ve decided moderation is totally key with us and our little ones. We planned on eating the healthiest options and letting our oldest one cheat. I want him to only fill his body with the healthy foods God gave us but also feel like the worst mommy EVER for depriving him of homemade baked goods and savory dishes, especially while all the other children are there eating all the things he wants to. I haven’t noticed anything too terrible when we go astray health wise but have noticed that my three year old honestly is happier & a lot less confrontational when he eats the natural way. Put good stuff in, get good stuff out 🙂 Thanks so much for your input and I’m excited for the next chapter in your lives!

A while back you mentioned you use Frankincense on your face each morning and evening. Do you just apply it topically after you clean your face? We’ve been using essential oils for a couple of months, and I would like to start using them on my skin. I’d rather use something more natural than spending hundreds of dollars on the chemical-filled products you see being sold everywhere.

Loved reading this. I, too, continue to have stomach issues the last few years. I have to say my will power is so bad when it comes to cutting out a particular group of foods. Is it the gluten that causes stomach issues or the dairy? Should I cut out one group at a time to see what the real issue might be? Thanks for this inspiring post. 🙂